Thursday, July 15, 2010
Moving on
Well, even though I haven't posted here in forever, I might as well do an update. I'm no longer going to update this site, I've become a contributor to Fist2Mouth. The website is www.fist2mouth.com, hope to see you there.
Friday, February 26, 2010
YAMMA Chapter VII: Rebirth
(Warmup)
Welcome back all, to this edition of YAMMA. By my count, it's been nigh unto four months since I posted one of these, but I just got a little hankering to write, and it seems like the right time to post this. Anyway, this is YAMMA, so let's get it on.
(The Bullhorn)
GSP. Brock Lesnar. Lyoto Machida. BJ Penn. Anderson Silva. If you haven't figured out what these men all have in common, you might need to do a little research. Maybe watch a UFC show or two. Just saying. Anyway, the aforementioned fighters are all the champions of their respective divisions. But let us go on a little journey. Just a tiny trip down the rabbit hole. Red pill or blue pill? Wait, that's the wrong metaphor. Scratch that. But I digress. What exactly would happen to these divisions if, by some random act of chance, these champions all suddenly died? Chalk it up to some sort on poison on the belts. Also, just for kicks and giggles, we'll take out some of the top challengers. This will be a two part column, with the lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight divisions in this segment, and the heavier classes next time. Let's take a little looksie at what would happen in each division shall we?
Lightweight division:
Champion: BJ Penn. Top challengers: Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard
So if we take these three men out, we're left with an interesting vacuum. No only are we Hawaiianless at the top (suck it Kendall Grove), we also seem to have a lack of, shall we say, talent. While quite possibly the contenders I've taken out aren't the cream of the crop in the division, they have not yet been beaten by Penn, which is more than some can say (suck it Kenny and Diego). What we have left in the UFC ligtweight division are the fighters Kenny Florian, Joe "Daddy" Stevenson, Clay Guida, and, on the edge of contendership, Sean Sherk. Sherk isn't as much of a threat to the belt as the other three named here, as he has not looked great in his last few outings. Also on thr outside, Guida is a fan favorite, but he has been shown to be the Jardine of the lightweight division, meaning that he can put on exciting fights everytime he steps out onto the Octagon, but he will lose to the top competition. He's a gatekeeper, nothing more, nothing less.
My prediction for this division is that, barring an absorbtion of the WEC Lightweight division and signing of stars currently trapped in other promotions, Kenn Florian would most likely take the belt and would most likely retain it, especially if former no. 1 contender Diego Sanchez decides to stay in the welterweight division. Eventually, however, fighters such as Shinya Aoki will cross over, and i believe that Senor Fancy Tights would take the belt. Yes, I know earlier I said that we weren't gonna look at that possibility, but it's my column. Deal with it. And speaking of Aoki, if you didn't see him break some fools arm at Dynamite!!, then you missed out. It was a great night of fights, capped off by an unbelievable break. Seriously, it was just nasty. Check it out on Youtube. Just search for "Shinya Aoki vs. Hirota arm break". You'll know when it happens.
Welterweight division:
Champion: Georges St. Pierre. Top contenders: Dan Hardy, Jon Fitch
A French Canadian who hovers extremely close to the top of all pound for pound charts, GSP has looked like a fancy hooker in at an Indy street corner: way better than all the rest. With pure domination in almost every fight he's been in, GSP has basically cleaned out his division. The lone black mark on his championship reign came in the form of a lucky shot from Matt Serra. My earliest memories of the UFC come from commerials that detailed the rivalry between the two, and I had absolutely no idea what it was about (Writers note: for those of you who did not read my ealiest columns, I first got into MMA at BJ Penns unification title fight with Sean Sherk at UFC 84). Since then, GSP has regained his title and embarked upon a reign of terror. The Brit Dan Hardy has recently recieved a title shot with a victor over Mike Swick, while Jon Fitch has posted (albiet lackluster) wins over most of the division and sports a nice 22-1 record. I can't speak too badly about Fitch however, since he's a hometown boy.
Now, who do we have left? The oldtimers, Matts Hughes and Serra, are still around, while some of the younger combatants such as Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck, and a newcomer, Paul "Semtex" Daley. Honestly, it's a tossup here. When Daley has just impressed the hell out of me. I had picked Dustin Hazelett to win by some crazy submission, but Semtex just took it to him (writer's note: if you had any idea what Semtex was before you played COD, props to you). However, he's still a relatively young fighter, and still has much to learn. My prediction is that Matt Hughes would recieve the first title shot against Thiago Alves, with the younger Alves grabbing the win. This sets up an explosive encounter with Daley, whose undefeated record and penchant for heavy hands would make for an incredible bout. In that fight, all I can say is that someone gonna get lamped.
Middleweight division:
Champion: Anderson Silva. Top contenders: Demian Maia and Chael Sonnen (screw him. Hi Treisk)
Here the deal. If Vitor doesn't pull off a miracle in his fight with "The Spider", Anderson Silva will not lose the belt until he retires or moves up permanently to the light heavyweight division. Silva is just that good. Maia is here since he's the number one contender, Chael is here since he has the next title shot after Maia (Writer's note: How the hell does Sherdog have Maia above Marquardt in the rankings? So what if he's getting the title shot!) . So it seems there is a severe lack of competitive challengers for Silva. There's not much to say about Sonnen, other than screw you for taking away Nate's title shot.
The middleweight division is really rather stacked, if you look at it as a whole. It's just that Silva has beaten pretty much all of the top people. The lone exceptions that I can think of are Michael Bisping and Wanderlei Silva, who coincidentally have a tilt scheduled for UFC 110. Other than that, let's just take a look at the list of fighters. Nate Marquardt? Beaten. Rich Franklin? Beaten twice. My prediction for the division is that the winner of Bisping/Silva would face Marquardt/Maia for the belt, with Marquardt coming out on top. Honestly, Nate may have suffered a setback with his loss to Sonnen, but he is one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC and he has been handpicked by Silva (Anderson this time) to be the next champion of the division. All that adds up to championship gold for Nate "The Great".
(Closer)
It feels nice to be writing again. I haven't exactly been the greatest at keeping a blog, so don't expect too much regularity. If you want that, try fiber or Hustle's daily HIPE. Anyway, im kinda out of it now, but feedback is much appreciated. If you wish to learn what musings I have throughout the day, you can follow me on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/evan_c. As I always say:
Peace out, and Rock on
-Evan
Welcome back all, to this edition of YAMMA. By my count, it's been nigh unto four months since I posted one of these, but I just got a little hankering to write, and it seems like the right time to post this. Anyway, this is YAMMA, so let's get it on.
(The Bullhorn)
GSP. Brock Lesnar. Lyoto Machida. BJ Penn. Anderson Silva. If you haven't figured out what these men all have in common, you might need to do a little research. Maybe watch a UFC show or two. Just saying. Anyway, the aforementioned fighters are all the champions of their respective divisions. But let us go on a little journey. Just a tiny trip down the rabbit hole. Red pill or blue pill? Wait, that's the wrong metaphor. Scratch that. But I digress. What exactly would happen to these divisions if, by some random act of chance, these champions all suddenly died? Chalk it up to some sort on poison on the belts. Also, just for kicks and giggles, we'll take out some of the top challengers. This will be a two part column, with the lightweight, welterweight, and middleweight divisions in this segment, and the heavier classes next time. Let's take a little looksie at what would happen in each division shall we?
Lightweight division:
Champion: BJ Penn. Top challengers: Frankie Edgar, Gray Maynard
So if we take these three men out, we're left with an interesting vacuum. No only are we Hawaiianless at the top (suck it Kendall Grove), we also seem to have a lack of, shall we say, talent. While quite possibly the contenders I've taken out aren't the cream of the crop in the division, they have not yet been beaten by Penn, which is more than some can say (suck it Kenny and Diego). What we have left in the UFC ligtweight division are the fighters Kenny Florian, Joe "Daddy" Stevenson, Clay Guida, and, on the edge of contendership, Sean Sherk. Sherk isn't as much of a threat to the belt as the other three named here, as he has not looked great in his last few outings. Also on thr outside, Guida is a fan favorite, but he has been shown to be the Jardine of the lightweight division, meaning that he can put on exciting fights everytime he steps out onto the Octagon, but he will lose to the top competition. He's a gatekeeper, nothing more, nothing less.
My prediction for this division is that, barring an absorbtion of the WEC Lightweight division and signing of stars currently trapped in other promotions, Kenn Florian would most likely take the belt and would most likely retain it, especially if former no. 1 contender Diego Sanchez decides to stay in the welterweight division. Eventually, however, fighters such as Shinya Aoki will cross over, and i believe that Senor Fancy Tights would take the belt. Yes, I know earlier I said that we weren't gonna look at that possibility, but it's my column. Deal with it. And speaking of Aoki, if you didn't see him break some fools arm at Dynamite!!, then you missed out. It was a great night of fights, capped off by an unbelievable break. Seriously, it was just nasty. Check it out on Youtube. Just search for "Shinya Aoki vs. Hirota arm break". You'll know when it happens.
Welterweight division:
Champion: Georges St. Pierre. Top contenders: Dan Hardy, Jon Fitch
A French Canadian who hovers extremely close to the top of all pound for pound charts, GSP has looked like a fancy hooker in at an Indy street corner: way better than all the rest. With pure domination in almost every fight he's been in, GSP has basically cleaned out his division. The lone black mark on his championship reign came in the form of a lucky shot from Matt Serra. My earliest memories of the UFC come from commerials that detailed the rivalry between the two, and I had absolutely no idea what it was about (Writers note: for those of you who did not read my ealiest columns, I first got into MMA at BJ Penns unification title fight with Sean Sherk at UFC 84). Since then, GSP has regained his title and embarked upon a reign of terror. The Brit Dan Hardy has recently recieved a title shot with a victor over Mike Swick, while Jon Fitch has posted (albiet lackluster) wins over most of the division and sports a nice 22-1 record. I can't speak too badly about Fitch however, since he's a hometown boy.
Now, who do we have left? The oldtimers, Matts Hughes and Serra, are still around, while some of the younger combatants such as Thiago Alves, Josh Koscheck, and a newcomer, Paul "Semtex" Daley. Honestly, it's a tossup here. When Daley has just impressed the hell out of me. I had picked Dustin Hazelett to win by some crazy submission, but Semtex just took it to him (writer's note: if you had any idea what Semtex was before you played COD, props to you). However, he's still a relatively young fighter, and still has much to learn. My prediction is that Matt Hughes would recieve the first title shot against Thiago Alves, with the younger Alves grabbing the win. This sets up an explosive encounter with Daley, whose undefeated record and penchant for heavy hands would make for an incredible bout. In that fight, all I can say is that someone gonna get lamped.
Middleweight division:
Champion: Anderson Silva. Top contenders: Demian Maia and Chael Sonnen (screw him. Hi Treisk)
Here the deal. If Vitor doesn't pull off a miracle in his fight with "The Spider", Anderson Silva will not lose the belt until he retires or moves up permanently to the light heavyweight division. Silva is just that good. Maia is here since he's the number one contender, Chael is here since he has the next title shot after Maia (Writer's note: How the hell does Sherdog have Maia above Marquardt in the rankings? So what if he's getting the title shot!) . So it seems there is a severe lack of competitive challengers for Silva. There's not much to say about Sonnen, other than screw you for taking away Nate's title shot.
The middleweight division is really rather stacked, if you look at it as a whole. It's just that Silva has beaten pretty much all of the top people. The lone exceptions that I can think of are Michael Bisping and Wanderlei Silva, who coincidentally have a tilt scheduled for UFC 110. Other than that, let's just take a look at the list of fighters. Nate Marquardt? Beaten. Rich Franklin? Beaten twice. My prediction for the division is that the winner of Bisping/Silva would face Marquardt/Maia for the belt, with Marquardt coming out on top. Honestly, Nate may have suffered a setback with his loss to Sonnen, but he is one of the most exciting fighters in the UFC and he has been handpicked by Silva (Anderson this time) to be the next champion of the division. All that adds up to championship gold for Nate "The Great".
(Closer)
It feels nice to be writing again. I haven't exactly been the greatest at keeping a blog, so don't expect too much regularity. If you want that, try fiber or Hustle's daily HIPE. Anyway, im kinda out of it now, but feedback is much appreciated. If you wish to learn what musings I have throughout the day, you can follow me on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/evan_c. As I always say:
Peace out, and Rock on
-Evan
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